In vitro corrosion of pure Mg in phosphate buffer solution—Influences of isoelectric point and molecular structure of amino acids

Influences of proteins on degradation of magnesium alloys are of great significance but not well understood. In particular the roles of amino acids, the basic unit of proteins in regulating the progress of biodegradation of magnesium based materials remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the impacts of alanine, glutamic acid and lysine on degradation of pure magnesium in phosphate buffer solution through SEM, XPS, FTIR, potentiodynamic polarisation curves, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and immersion tests. The changed contents of amino acids in solutions were detected by UV–vis spectrophotometer. Results demonstrate that the charges of the selected amino acids imposed significant contribution to suppressing the degradation of pure magnesium in phosphate buffer solution. The presence of amino acids led to the formation of phosphate-based corrosion products, increasing free corrosion potential, and reduction in corrosion current density and solution pH depending on their isoelectric points and molecular structures. A plausible corrosion mechanism organised by amino acids on pure magnesium was proposed. •The presence of amino acids shifts the anodic polarisation behaviour of pure Mg.•All selected amino acids delay corrosion rate of pure Mg in PBS.•Negatively charged alanine and glutamic acid show better inhibition of corrosion.•Selected amino acids promote the formation of magnesium hydroxide phosphates.•The corrosion mechanism of amino acids on magnesium is proposed.